Chapter 5
Chapter 5
A reasonable period that was far too long later:
Graves reached a finger into his collar once more and gave it yet another irritable yank.
“I really hate these things,” he muttered. “I really, really hate them.”
“You know, you could’ve gone with your officer’s coat,” Shining Armor smiled, trying his best to not enjoy the marshal’s suffering and failing miserably. Graves just scoffed.
“You kidding? Those things are white, and you know what Rarity would’ve done if I wore white today.”
“Yeah, I still don’t get that,” Spike shrugged before pausing to straighten up his jacket. “Why’s it so important that you don’t wear white?”
“Don’t even ask,” Graves sighed, hand dropping as he gave up on the collar as well. “Trying to understand women is just a headache waiting to happen.”
“And people say I don’t make sense,” Discord mumbled as he did a fair job of looking just as, if not more uncomfortable than the marshal. “She picks out what you wear today like the fate of the world depends on it, yet she lets you keep that garish thing on your face?”
“Let me?” Graves snorted. “D, she made me.”
Needless to say, Discord was not the only one surprised to hear that Rarity liked blemishes, especially when looking at the one in question. Though the eye had healed just fine, Graves still retained a rather distinctive scar from his days in the Savage Lands, one that ran from just above his brow across his right gunmetal grey and halfway down his cheek. ‘The perfect wicked embellishment to bring out your handsome features,’ she’d said with absolutely fondness, ‘and a good reminder of what I’ll do to you if you ever leave me like that again.’
“So, are all relationships this, um… terrifying?” Spike asked as he looked up at the marshal once more with a shiver of recollection.
“Only the good ones,” Shining Armor laughed, to which Big Macintosh added a good and hearty,
“Ee-yup.”
Just then, whatever manly bantering the men had in mind was cut off as Octavia and Vinyl Scratch began playing. Straightening up his tuxedo, Graves attempted to ignore the aggravating sensation of being strangled by Breezies as he cast his eyes out over the town hall, now packed to the rafters and beyond. Idly, he nodded to General Ironside where he sat beside Princess Celestia, then to the bickering, fidgeting Ghost Legacy squad that sat behind them, then Cadance, Red, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, Hemmingmane, Cheese Sandwich, Chrysalis, Avis, Gilda, and countless other faces he'd come to know so well. But surveying the crowd was merely to distract himself from his nerves. Never in all his days, not even when going toe to toe with the End itself, had Graves ever felt such a potent mix of fear and heart-pounding excitement as he did at that precise moment.
Then far doors opened, the procession began, and the sensation multiplied twofold.
Rainbow Dash led the way, striding forth for all the world like she was about to launch into one of her now famous aerial shows. Applejack followed behind at a much more reasonable, if still very enthusiastic walk, one that a usually demure Fluttershy almost matched pep for pep. Pinkie Pie was, as usual, Pinkie Pie, but today, she managed to contain her energy just enough to match the stately procession of her friends. Then Twilight Sparkle, with regality fit for a princess and twinkling eyes fit for a child on Hearth’s warming day, rounded out the rear.
Music continued to stream forth, melodious and sweet as Sweetie Belle followed soon after. Flown back just days before from her vocal training in Farma, the once goofy little girl now strode down the aisle as a graceful young woman. Yet no amount of grace could contain the positively bubbling energy that threatened to burst forth with every approaching step.
As she finally took her place on stage with a giggling, excited wave to Graves on the other end - one which he returned with a much smaller, if still very warm smile - in darted Afterburner. Nearly dropping the pillow he held in hand during his dynamic entry, he skidded to a halt and rapidly darting back to help his little sister along. Though she wobbled a bit on still unsteady legs, Prism Lights dutifully scattered as many petals from her basket as her tiny hands could manage. With a cheerful wink from their father on stage and a silent cheer from their mother in the stands, the pair ascended the stairs and took their place, just like they'd practiced the night before.
All the while, through the music and the procession, Graves steadily felt his heart beating faster and harder with every passing moment till it seemed fit to explode right inside his chest. Then the door opened once more and all of that stopped as gunmetal grey eyes went very wide indeed.
The crowd rose. In walked the only man who had ever truly terrified the marshal, yet it wasn’t to him that the marshal looked. Instead, that honor went to the one who came in on his arm, the most beautiful woman that Graves ever had and ever would see.
Rarity.
He tried to think of some way to describe her. He really did. But no matter how he tried, whenever he looked at her, from the crown of violet curls atop her head to her elegant dress of pristine, shimmering white, he could think of nothing that really fit. He looked to her sparkling sapphire eyes and saw her as wonderful. He saw her serenely floating stride and found her beautiful. He took her in whole and remembered everything they had been through, all the good times they’d shared and the bad as well. He remembered her laughter, her tears, her fits, and her triumphs. He remembered every single thing she’d done with him and for him to bring them both to this day, and knew her as amazing.
The only way he could describe Rarity was perfect. Absolutely, completely, and unequivocally perfect.
But when she looked up to him and smiled, even that wasn’t enough.
Step by beautiful step, Rarity walked on stage, leaving the arm of her father so she could join her beloved marshal. Graves stepped forward too, wooden-footed and looking like a fool, but he didn’t even notice. He couldn’t possibly care.
“Friends, family, dearly beloved,” Princess Luna announced to the crowds with a radiant smile. "We are gathered here today to join this man and this woman together in holy matrimony.
“Marriage is a solemn commitment, a sacred promise to be honored by all. It is the cornerstone upon which our homes our built, the foundation upon which family is formed and our very lives spring forth. It is a vow of devotion to be shared by two who love and cherish one another above all else. It is a bond that binds two together and joins them into one.”
As she looked from crowds to Rarity and Graves, her smile somehow became even warmer.
“I can think of no two who know this better than you. And so, I ask you. Graves. Do you take Rarity to be your wedded wife? Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in health, remaining faithful to her as long as you both shall live?”
“I do,” Graves said. And as he spoke the words he’d never been surer of, the silver-eyed marshal took up a ring, a thin band with patterns of silver and gold that swirled about as freely as the clouds in the sky, one of a now matching pair, and slipped it onto his beloved’s finger.
“Rarity. Do you take Graves to be your wedded husband? Do you promise to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him in sickness and in health, remaining faithful to him as long as you both shall live?”
“I do,” she smiled as she took up her ring’s matching partner and slipped it onto her dear marshal’s finger. And then, adding on in tones so soft that only he could hear, she said, “Till death do us part and beyond. Now and forever more.”
“Then by the power vested in me,” Princess Luna beamed, “I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
The two drew closer, so close that Graves could feel the heat of her breath tickling his chin, and then...
Just a moment. A brief moment of warmth, a faint touch of wetness as they met.
But that moment?
Even beyond bliss.
The world erupted. The crowd roared as music thundered and cannons exploded forth with bursts of shimmering, sparkling light. The girls laughed and cried and hugged and cried, then laughed and hugged and cried some more. Even biggest and toughest, from burly Big Mac to the ever stalwart Ironside found themselves averting eyes as manly tears were shed.
Yet even with all this noise and commotion, for two people, it all went completely unnoticed. United as they were, from sparkling sapphire to shining silver, in that moment, nobody existed but the two of them.
“Well then, this is it,” Rarity beamed, flushed and breathless and utterly, breathtakingly beautiful. “This is really the end.”
“End? Of what?”
“Why, of your journey of course,” she laughed. “After running about and fighting and struggling for so very, very long, you’re finally done. You are officially settling down and starting a new life with a newly wedded wife, one who I don’t mind saying, simply couldn’t be happier.”
“I see,” he said, this time with scarred eyebrow arched in question and amusement. “And you call that an ending?”
“But of course,” Rarity laughed once me. “Why, what would you say it was, my new, darling husband?”
And then, grinning one of those sort of goofy, cocky and cock-sure, full-of-confidence smirks men his age seemed to specialize in, with silver eyes sparkling with more love, joy, and happiness than he had ever felt in his life, Graves said,
“Me? I’d say we're just getting started.”
**********
When one journey ends, another one always begins.
Thank you so much for reading!
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Wow... That's an abrupt Timeskip...
YAY!
It's still Incomplete!
... But, what if that's an error.......
I'm betting that we're getting a recap of what we skipped over...
"in Farma" ... What and/or where is this "Farma"?
Typo(s)?:
"almost match(ed) pep"
As the Princess Spoke, Magnum slipped a hefty stack of bills towards the steely-eyed Marshal. "Here ya go, kiddo. Thanks fer finally marrying her. Seesh, if I hadta sit through one more speech about her 'dream wedding'..."
Next up on the Journey Of Graves.
The Battles Of Married Life.
andreaaahwashere.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/lie-down-try-not-to-cry-cry-alot.jpg
...I HAVE SEASONAL ALLERGIES OKAY?!
And there it ends, once again. Well done.
This has been a long time coming, a moment I've been waiting for for quite a while. I'm glad to finally see it happen
.
P.S: Although I'm a bit bummed, since I wanted to see the proposal itself but I'll live.
He remembered every single thing she’d
Incomplete? Interesting to say the least. But I do wonder why you released another ending after the first. I thought it pretty well thought through and execueted . Well, it's your call and the mariage ending is well done too. See you next chapter I guess?
6115357
6115017 The story is in fact complete now. It's all complete.
you. you brilliant bastard. I love you so greatness never stops.
ridiculously loud and resounding applause
Thank you J.
Welp. This turned my okay-ish birthday into a decent one.
So it's over. It really is over.
I still don't forgive you for that shit you pulled a story back.
Nah, it's all good.
6116027 It's you're birthday? Mine is one day after yours. I too, am treating this as an early birthday present.
Thank you J, although I feel this flash-forward chapter was just a wee tad rushed.
Methinks there is going to be more journeys in order to fill in the gaps. At least, I hope....
Now that's an ending!
6115150 IT'S OKAY SO DO I
Uh... reminder please. Who are they again?
Gentleman J... I expect to hear about their children? Do you understand me? A little boy who wants to dazzle the fashion crowds of Canterlot and Manehatten, and a little girl who likes to go rough and tumble,
6117301
Cadance and Shining Armor's kids.
Pardon my French, but WTF happened to Spike??? Obviously it is long enough that Spike probably and finally got a girl (I still think he's a little heartbroken that Rarity pretty much friendzoned him and told him that he was pretty much a kid and that she is a grown woman--it would never work, and Rarity needed a real man, which Graves is).
Everything from this, I just keep getting the feeling that that the events for him started with "Be a Man!" there was never a conclusion. So which one did Spike ultimately go steady with? I'm pretty sure that Rarity would never let Spike stay in the proverbial doldrums; even though she shattered his little adolescent heart, I do think that she's more than willing to help him pick up the pieces and maybe even help to repair it so that some other nice girl can go in there and make his life complete and whole again, just like it seems Rarity did to Graves and surprisingly Graves did to Rarity.
......I know it's over, but I can assume that there is gonna be children in the future. Knowing Rarity, I can assume she wanted the ideal life: her blooming career, an ruggedly handsome husband that loves her more than life itself, and being a beautiful mother. So far she's got 2 of three, and that Graves is pretty much stationary since he's not gonna travel the world anymore, staying to settle in Ponyville, or probably Canterlot (knowing Rarity's dream and Graves being a sargent now). I'm pretty sure that there is gonna be one hell of a wedding night between Graves and Rarity, and that wedding night could swell into a couple of days at least--Rarity is gonna make sure that she never leaves Graves ever again, not to mention that there was a little promise that they would not get intimate until they are married. Well, they're married now, the gloves (and presumably other intimate things
) are finally off.......
I'm gonna give them 2 years minimum until Rarity says the one other thing that Graves probably never realized it. "I'm pregnant" or "You're going to be a daddy". Something like that. And Rarity is gonna say that to him at least twice in the future.
And thank you GentlemanJ for an amazing story. I'm happy that there was a happy ending for all. Bravo.
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Thank you for the story GentlemanJ.
6115435 And we love every word of it!!
GentlemanJ: Thank you for an amazing journey! this has been a great read that was wonderfully executed.
I really must say that I feel sorry for the readers who will find this story after you have completed it. The way that you were able to put the reader in Rarity's position of not knowing if Graves was alive or dead for that (luckily short) amount of time was something that I don't think could have been easily achieved with a regular novelization of this story. You are truly an artist of the written (typed) word. You were able to influence so many with the use of this fanfiction medium.
In my opinion you should add in your blog post that you had after the previous arc as a final "chapter" in the previous arc. The clarification of the point of view was really eye opening to me. I think it should be in there to give the later readers that experience of the "gravity" of how things played out. They may not get the full experience, but at least they will be made aware of it.
Bravo, Sir! I am interested to possibly see what you might have in store for us next!
So what your future plans as an author? gonna take it easy with some light stories here and there or are you planning on jumping into another epic? Regardless, excellent job and thanks again for your effort.
Hopefully not for the last time in one of your stories, this is BlownGasket saying...
Have a wonderful everything.
6125916 At this point, I'm pretty much done writing on fimfiction. Not saying that there will never be a story about the Gravity children, but I've got no plans to do so any time soon, and the Journey was the one story I really wanted to write.
What I'd like to do now is try writing an original story and seeing whether I can actually get something published. No idea how that'd work, but it should be fun.
Also, thanks for reading, man. It's been a blast.
6127040 Of course, good gentleman. I wish you the best of luck in the novel industry. It can be pretty harsh, but if you pull it off, I would definitely like to check it out.
Great ending to a really awesome collection of stories. I certainly hope you bring more of your writing here in the future.
Ohohohohohohoho.
You are the best.
6175895
"Shut up baby, I know it."
-Bender B. Rodriguez
Wait.
HOLD IT RIGHT THERE.
Which one of the two has the real D-ring?
6181764 They're both real. At the end of chapter 3, Graves makes a request of Discord. Though it's never stated, chapter four reveals that in a box that previously held three items (the otherworldly stone, the badge, and the ring), there are now four things. This is because Graves requested that Discord split the ring into two so that the he and Rarity can wear them together and both share in the blessing of Luck. That's why in chapter 3 and before, it's referred to as a thick band, while in chapter 5, it's referred two as two thin bands. They're both real, just now existing as two halves of the original.
Happy ending with closure, but with some room for speculation on the couples future... Much better received, well done!
Naturally as a fan of Graves, I would love to see more slice of life work from you with him in it, but I understand if you have grown tired of this project. Hell, you've written more stories in this series than I can recount, and I know that I get restless after spending a few to many hours typing.
-
-
Those paragraphs with Cadence, Shinning, and their kids... My gosh my heart could barely take it. I can SEE Cadence being that kind of mom too.
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-
-
I wonder if Graves will ever tell Rarity that the ring he proposed with was a gift from the Lord of Chaos, and grants +5 Luck when equipped.
6199486 No fanfics for a while. I decided to try and get published, so I've started working on some original works. No idea how that'll work, but I'm sticking to it.
And knowing Graves, Rarity will find through Celestia, bring it up to Graves, and have him blink a few times before saying, "Oh. Yeah."
6200776 I can TOTALLY see him doing that, just shrugging it off. I can also see her finding reason to be upset at not being told about it, and him trying to minimize the fact it was given to him by Discord. Something like, "It's a nice ring, and I thought you would appreciate it. Not much more to say."
Disclestia and LunaMac...... oh the sweet, sweet shipping.......
This has been a nice conclusion for the previous stories!
Thank you.
-frozen
Hello, man.
You know, I like cliffhanger endings. Especially so good
as in "End". But happy endings I like even more, heh.
Thanks for this great story. It was really, really good.
May I hope, we can hear more about marshals sometime?
Glad i decided to check all your stories just in case, i would have missed this one. Great real ending as well. GOD I LOVE IT! so god damn much.
7530362
This... fucking fic. J... I haven't felt this attached to a story in such a long time! And you closed it off better than my last favourite!
Oh man, I should have read the rest of this earlier -you! Sir! Are amazing and I am at a loss for words after finishing this one. I held off commenting for a while because I've been drifting away from this site for a while.
But damn!
Good luck to any future projects you do. Have well wishes and praise from me.
Thank you.
7779729
Manly tears of joy were shed today.
Thank you for this saga, J.
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8258857
Did you just come back to this dead story just to Maui finger gun? You beautiful bastard you
These stories are my babies. I always take time to visit my babies.
Wow. Lots to say but what hasn't been said already? Took me a week and a half, reading in my spare time at work to go all the way though each part of this saga.
I daresay it was fantastic!
Nothing but praise at how well written this was. The journey was full of ups, downs, tense moments and it fit together tightly. Aside from redundant words that threw me off a bit; they are but nit picks to this wonderful series.
The only thing that I hate is that it is over, but a fantastic ending it was. Bravo... now to find something else to read.
sigh...
I can honestly say this is the one series I just keep coming back to on this website. I've read and am reading some amazing stories, but this one keeps drawing me back in. Read them when they first came out, still reading them now.
To you J, I say good show. Good show indeed. And I'll probably be back here again in a year or 2 to read the whole thing again and to love it once more.
That day will come around again, for now though I bid you adieu. And thank you again, for these absolute gems of stories.
~Valvatorez
The Graves series is one of the best series in fanfiction hands down... So Whats next for the gentleman?
8595075
Gonna keep working on original stuff. There's one I did a while back on wattpad.com called The Man Who Wore a Silver Skull. Not the best, but look for GentlemanJ, and it should be there.